I'll be very busy today, desperately laying in supplies, boarding up my windows, chopping more firewood. Far too busy to post anything of substance.
You see, I've been watching the local TV news. It would appear that the end is nigh.
I can only hope we make it through this storm, which may be the worst in recorded history.
Tomorrow, I'll have some tips to help our brave local newsies get through the harrowing day.
Meantime, be afraid. Be very afraid. And whatever you do, don't leave your home after 3 this afternoon. You may never make it back.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Settled Science?
A lot of my acquaintances are going to hate me for writing this. As far as global warming is concerned, I’m an agnostic. I’m not sure if it is, or isn’t. But a substantial number of the people I know are not only convinced, they’re nearly militant about insisting Al Gore is right.
I think he’s wrong. And now, with some of the “science” behind it falling apart, or at least coming under serious question, he’s strangely silent.
Do I think the climate is changing? Yes. It always changes. It apparently goes through long cycles.
One thing I do know for sure is that science is not at all about consensus. At the end of the 19th century, all his fellow scientists and surgeons thought Joseph Lister was bonkers. He’s the man who discovered bacteria, but when he talked about it, the scientific community of the day said it was settled science: high death rates in Glasgow hospitals were caused by an invisible, stinking miasma in the air.
Sound familiar?
Some of the biggest “names” in climate research are in trouble, after somebody hacked into the e-mail servers of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia northeast of London. The Washington Post says Phil Jones, the director of the CRU, is stepping down. US News and World Report says Penn State professor Michael Mann is in hot water with his institution.
Jones and Mann are two of the biggest names in climate research, and it appears that they are not very scientific in their methods. They’ve been caught trying to quash the work of anybody in the climate research community that doesn’t agree with them.
Science, like medicine, puts great faith in “peer review”. That’s so somebody’s wild, rogue speculation doesn’t become “settled science”. It has to be reviewed by a group of peers. And it appears very clear that when it came to peer review, Jones “peer-reviewed” Mann’s work, and vice-versa.
The e-mail flap has led to literally thousands of Freedom of Information requests from the media, to take a look at the data, methodologies, and supportive evidence behind CRU’s publications.
Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar-winning PowerPoint presentation, An Inconvenient Truth, has been excoriated by reputable scientists. Two minutes of doodling around on the internet will net you a whole mess of unsettled pseudo-science in the Gore presentation. I get the idea that Gore is in it to generate speaking fees and sell books. Really.
The capital-T Truth about global climate change is still very much unsettled. Truth in something so complex will not be easy to come by.
The scientists who were caught trying to stifle disagreement about climate research have done a huge disservice to their cause, and to the reputation of all scientists. It’s not a holy duty imposed by Al Gore. It’s science. It’s not consensus.
I think he’s wrong. And now, with some of the “science” behind it falling apart, or at least coming under serious question, he’s strangely silent.
Do I think the climate is changing? Yes. It always changes. It apparently goes through long cycles.
One thing I do know for sure is that science is not at all about consensus. At the end of the 19th century, all his fellow scientists and surgeons thought Joseph Lister was bonkers. He’s the man who discovered bacteria, but when he talked about it, the scientific community of the day said it was settled science: high death rates in Glasgow hospitals were caused by an invisible, stinking miasma in the air.
Sound familiar?
Some of the biggest “names” in climate research are in trouble, after somebody hacked into the e-mail servers of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia northeast of London. The Washington Post says Phil Jones, the director of the CRU, is stepping down. US News and World Report says Penn State professor Michael Mann is in hot water with his institution.
Jones and Mann are two of the biggest names in climate research, and it appears that they are not very scientific in their methods. They’ve been caught trying to quash the work of anybody in the climate research community that doesn’t agree with them.
Science, like medicine, puts great faith in “peer review”. That’s so somebody’s wild, rogue speculation doesn’t become “settled science”. It has to be reviewed by a group of peers. And it appears very clear that when it came to peer review, Jones “peer-reviewed” Mann’s work, and vice-versa.
The e-mail flap has led to literally thousands of Freedom of Information requests from the media, to take a look at the data, methodologies, and supportive evidence behind CRU’s publications.
Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar-winning PowerPoint presentation, An Inconvenient Truth, has been excoriated by reputable scientists. Two minutes of doodling around on the internet will net you a whole mess of unsettled pseudo-science in the Gore presentation. I get the idea that Gore is in it to generate speaking fees and sell books. Really.
The capital-T Truth about global climate change is still very much unsettled. Truth in something so complex will not be easy to come by.
The scientists who were caught trying to stifle disagreement about climate research have done a huge disservice to their cause, and to the reputation of all scientists. It’s not a holy duty imposed by Al Gore. It’s science. It’s not consensus.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Porn and the Family Council
Porn is an industry where they exaggerate the size of everything, says David Klatell of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Pretty nifty turn of phrase for an academic.
Juliane Appling, who along with her merry band of gay-haters runs the Wisconsin Family Council, is just out with a “comprehensive” study which she says shows how porn threatens marriages, children, communities, and individual happiness.
The guy who did the study, Patrick Fagan, PhD., says porn is addictive. He works for a Washington think-tank. He says viewing porn releases dopamine. Bingo - addiction.
They stop short of saying porn causes train wrecks in neighboring states, fires in orphanages, and may have been behind Tiger Woods’ recently publicized “transgressions”.
But they do say porn is a major threat to marriage, family, children, and the community.
So, how pervasive is the porn industry? Not anywhere near as much as the industry would have you believe. There are widespread claims that it’s a 10- to 14-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise, but, as the good professor said, this is one of those claims that’s wildly exaggerated.
So is the claim that adults spend 4 billion dollars a year on renting or buying X-rated videos.
Since it is an “industry”, there are some believable numbers out there, and a Forbes Magazine/Adams Media study says the closest you can get to an estimate on the real amount of money spent on adult videos is somewhere between half a billion and 1.8 billion dollars a year.
The same attempt to put numbers to the porn industry says there’s about a billion dollars a year spent on downloading porn from the internet, about the same amount is spent on porn and soft-porn magazines, and about 128 million a year on pay-per-view porn.
Meanwhile, back at the Wisconsin Family Council, Appling claims in their Wednesday news escape that she “knows thousands of Wisconsin marriages and families (which) have been ruined by this insidious industry”.
Indeed. Thousands.
Plenty of my former colleagues in broadcasting referred to their workstation computer as “the porn machine”, but it was a joke. A somewhat dated NetRatings study showed news websites get about 41.1 million unique visits per day; finance websites rack up 34.2 million daily visits; greeting card websites account for 25.5 million hit’s a day, and porn sites….22.9 million daily hits.
It takes more than what’s left of the broadcast industry to rack up 23 million hits a day, so the online porn biz is doing OK.
One more gem from the “talking points” about the study on the WFC website: “Child-sex offenders are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved in its distribution”.
In writing workshops, we used to call that sort of talking point “stating the obvious with a sense of discovery”.
But, if anybody can save us from pernicious porn, it’s the Wisconsin Family Council.
Juliane Appling, who along with her merry band of gay-haters runs the Wisconsin Family Council, is just out with a “comprehensive” study which she says shows how porn threatens marriages, children, communities, and individual happiness.
The guy who did the study, Patrick Fagan, PhD., says porn is addictive. He works for a Washington think-tank. He says viewing porn releases dopamine. Bingo - addiction.
They stop short of saying porn causes train wrecks in neighboring states, fires in orphanages, and may have been behind Tiger Woods’ recently publicized “transgressions”.
But they do say porn is a major threat to marriage, family, children, and the community.
So, how pervasive is the porn industry? Not anywhere near as much as the industry would have you believe. There are widespread claims that it’s a 10- to 14-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise, but, as the good professor said, this is one of those claims that’s wildly exaggerated.
So is the claim that adults spend 4 billion dollars a year on renting or buying X-rated videos.
Since it is an “industry”, there are some believable numbers out there, and a Forbes Magazine/Adams Media study says the closest you can get to an estimate on the real amount of money spent on adult videos is somewhere between half a billion and 1.8 billion dollars a year.
The same attempt to put numbers to the porn industry says there’s about a billion dollars a year spent on downloading porn from the internet, about the same amount is spent on porn and soft-porn magazines, and about 128 million a year on pay-per-view porn.
Meanwhile, back at the Wisconsin Family Council, Appling claims in their Wednesday news escape that she “knows thousands of Wisconsin marriages and families (which) have been ruined by this insidious industry”.
Indeed. Thousands.
Plenty of my former colleagues in broadcasting referred to their workstation computer as “the porn machine”, but it was a joke. A somewhat dated NetRatings study showed news websites get about 41.1 million unique visits per day; finance websites rack up 34.2 million daily visits; greeting card websites account for 25.5 million hit’s a day, and porn sites….22.9 million daily hits.
It takes more than what’s left of the broadcast industry to rack up 23 million hits a day, so the online porn biz is doing OK.
One more gem from the “talking points” about the study on the WFC website: “Child-sex offenders are more likely to view pornography regularly or to be involved in its distribution”.
In writing workshops, we used to call that sort of talking point “stating the obvious with a sense of discovery”.
But, if anybody can save us from pernicious porn, it’s the Wisconsin Family Council.
Miss Vicki, The Katherine, and Coincidence
How wondrous our local media in this season of joy. Thursday afternoon, Miss Vicki (as the BlaskaBlog calls her) held forth on WIBA-AM, shreiking at Sheriff Mahoney for not "supporting his deputies" during the big contract dispute.
Of course, Sheriff Mahoney, as an elected official, is forbidden to electioneer or advocate as regards the deputy's union, which earlier in his law enforcement career he led.
But subtleties like FACTS are often the bane of talk shows.
Then, at 6, on News 3, it was obvious that Andy Choi drew the short straw in the newsroom, and he had to go out and stand in the snow in front of the Beltline, to prove that it was indeed snowing and that the first snow of the year again wrought havoc upon the communters.
My wife used to be forced to do this inane story. I feel your pain, Andy.
Then, a bit later in cast, they did a story about The Katherine bemoaning the county's horrid financial situation....no money...toughest budget since the great depression and all that...acknowledging that as many as 20 of the county deputies could be laid off.
The very next story - The Katherine, all smiles, at a news conference announcing that in her largesse she was granting my long-time pal Barry Levinson TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND of the county's dollars, as a loan, to help him improve his famous Mustard Museum. Barry just moved it from Mount Horeb to Middleton.
Am I the only one who sees the irony here, or, is it just "coincidence" the stories ran back-to-back?
Of course, Sheriff Mahoney, as an elected official, is forbidden to electioneer or advocate as regards the deputy's union, which earlier in his law enforcement career he led.
But subtleties like FACTS are often the bane of talk shows.
Then, at 6, on News 3, it was obvious that Andy Choi drew the short straw in the newsroom, and he had to go out and stand in the snow in front of the Beltline, to prove that it was indeed snowing and that the first snow of the year again wrought havoc upon the communters.
My wife used to be forced to do this inane story. I feel your pain, Andy.
Then, a bit later in cast, they did a story about The Katherine bemoaning the county's horrid financial situation....no money...toughest budget since the great depression and all that...acknowledging that as many as 20 of the county deputies could be laid off.
The very next story - The Katherine, all smiles, at a news conference announcing that in her largesse she was granting my long-time pal Barry Levinson TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND of the county's dollars, as a loan, to help him improve his famous Mustard Museum. Barry just moved it from Mount Horeb to Middleton.
Am I the only one who sees the irony here, or, is it just "coincidence" the stories ran back-to-back?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Bankers With Guns
I had to check it out for myself. A blogger whose stuff I frequently read posted something the other day about upper-echelon types at Goldmine Sachs - I know, it’s really Goldman Sachs Group Inc. - arming themselves with handguns.
Could it be that the barons of Wall Street are actually scared of a popular uprising against them, after they looted us, fleeced our Treasury, grabbed the bailout money, and still go around handing out obscene bonuses to themselves?
You bet.
Alice Schroeder, a respected financial author and journalist who does a blog for Bloomberg.com, found out that senior execs at Goldmine Sachs are applying in droves to the NYPD for permits to carry pistols. Schroeder discovered that one of her friends had just written her first-ever reference for a gun permit, and it was for a Goldmine Sachs banker.
The NYPD would confirm only that many of the top dogs at Goldmine do have pistol permits, but declined to name names, and said a large number of pistol permits for Goldmine execs were pending.
Our worst nightmare - city-slicker bankers with guns!!!
A few days ago, just before the start of the annual gun deer season, I wrote a rant about, among other things, the true hunter’s nemesis - a city-slicker from Chicago, invited up to Wisconsin by a client for the thrill of the hunt, armed to the teeth with a high-powered rifle and enough ammo to sink a ship, and absolutely NO training or experience with firearms.
Bankers with pistols is a horrible scenario. According to the FBI, of shootings involving a handgun, most happen at a range of seven feet. And you’d be AMAZED at how many people MISS a target seven feet away. And at how many people freeze at the moment of confrontation.
My younger brother, who got the same excellent firearms training that I did from our late father, a highly-decorated WW2 combat infantry veteran, got his start in the world of high finance working for a Denver bank keeping their high-rollers happy. He’d take the rich guys elk or bear hunting, and more than once had to step in and make the killshot when the client was paralyzed with fear.
He got to be good friends with a lot of rich people by keeping his mouth shut about what actually happened.
Any experienced hunter, whether they’re carrying a .243 or .308 Winchester or a Browning .30-06, basic Marlin or top-of-the-line Weatherby, can drop a deer with one shot easily at a hundred yards, and likely can make one shot count even at the 200-300 yard range.
But a banker - in the city or at home in the Hamptons with a 9mm Glock he’s never fired? Or maybe cranked off a few rounds at a practice range or at some weekend commando class, paid for by the company?
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Could it be that the barons of Wall Street are actually scared of a popular uprising against them, after they looted us, fleeced our Treasury, grabbed the bailout money, and still go around handing out obscene bonuses to themselves?
You bet.
Alice Schroeder, a respected financial author and journalist who does a blog for Bloomberg.com, found out that senior execs at Goldmine Sachs are applying in droves to the NYPD for permits to carry pistols. Schroeder discovered that one of her friends had just written her first-ever reference for a gun permit, and it was for a Goldmine Sachs banker.
The NYPD would confirm only that many of the top dogs at Goldmine do have pistol permits, but declined to name names, and said a large number of pistol permits for Goldmine execs were pending.
Our worst nightmare - city-slicker bankers with guns!!!
A few days ago, just before the start of the annual gun deer season, I wrote a rant about, among other things, the true hunter’s nemesis - a city-slicker from Chicago, invited up to Wisconsin by a client for the thrill of the hunt, armed to the teeth with a high-powered rifle and enough ammo to sink a ship, and absolutely NO training or experience with firearms.
Bankers with pistols is a horrible scenario. According to the FBI, of shootings involving a handgun, most happen at a range of seven feet. And you’d be AMAZED at how many people MISS a target seven feet away. And at how many people freeze at the moment of confrontation.
My younger brother, who got the same excellent firearms training that I did from our late father, a highly-decorated WW2 combat infantry veteran, got his start in the world of high finance working for a Denver bank keeping their high-rollers happy. He’d take the rich guys elk or bear hunting, and more than once had to step in and make the killshot when the client was paralyzed with fear.
He got to be good friends with a lot of rich people by keeping his mouth shut about what actually happened.
Any experienced hunter, whether they’re carrying a .243 or .308 Winchester or a Browning .30-06, basic Marlin or top-of-the-line Weatherby, can drop a deer with one shot easily at a hundred yards, and likely can make one shot count even at the 200-300 yard range.
But a banker - in the city or at home in the Hamptons with a 9mm Glock he’s never fired? Or maybe cranked off a few rounds at a practice range or at some weekend commando class, paid for by the company?
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Unsolicited Advice For Tiger
Tiger Woods has made nearly a billion dollars, some of it on the golf course, most of it endorsing products. Nike alone pays him about 30 million a year to haul their clubs around the course, wear their clothes, and sport their logo.
Everybody from local sports columnist Andy Baggot to my YourNews colleague Bill Wineke to ESPN's Michael Wilbon says Tiger doesn’t owe anybody an explanation about the now-notorious fire-hydrant-and-tree- smashing incident late last week. Private matter, they say. Between Tiger and his car insurance company, I guess. He’ll pay a ticket of $164 for careless driving; case closed.
My wife had a similar reaction to Wineke’s when learning the vehicle involved was a big, black Cadillac Escalade. He was a pitchman for Buick, wasn’t he? I pointed out to my bride that last summer, Buick pulled the plug on the big paychecks to Tiger to cut costs. He played in the world’s last Buick Open golf tournament anyway. No hard feelings. Bailout money doesn’t cover celebrity endorsements.
As of this writing, his biggest single paycheck-issuer, Nike, says they’ll stand by their man. Tiger won’t lose a dime in endorsements because he’s a bad driver, pun intended.
Unless it’s because the accident followed a nasty domestic battery incident, and that’s the kind of stuff the new mainstream media….TMZ and Entertainment Tonight…will dine on. There’s no evidence of that, though it won’t stop the gossip websites and shows from implying it.
Baggot and Wineke and the others are right: Tiger doesn’t owe us any more of an explanation than Barbara Lawton does for her abrupt pulllout from the Governor’s race.
But both of them handled the situation quite poorly.
Just as the Lawton pullout has fueled everything from the malicious gossip of a Green Bay talk-show host to a search of her official e-mails trying to find a clue about why she quit, Tiger’s silence is deafening.
All he’s said, officially, is that the accident was solely his fault. Did anyone believe or allege otherwise? He’s said the horrible rumors aren’t true. Which rumors?
Because he’s the top-ranked golfer in the world, sports writers and commentators give him a break when he slams a club in anger or drops the F-bomb after a bad shot. He’s expected to win every tournament he enters, and pressure like that nobody needs. But, that’s what you get when you’re on the verge of being the only athlete-billionaire around.
So what should Tiger have done? He should have lied his rear end off, the American way.
He should have called some reporter pal (like Brett Favre calling Greta Van Susteren) and said “I had a sleepless night going, was really tired, pulled out of the driveway to take in the night air, and somehow hit the gas instead of the brakes. Next thing you know I’m in the middle of the lawn half stunned, with my wife trying to get me out of the car. I feel like a dope. I guess I’d better leave my driving to the golf course for a while.”
I was lied to for thirty years in the news biz. I’ve heard them all. I know the difference between a convincing lie and a bad lie. If you’re reading this, Tiger, I’m available to consult, on a fee basis.
Thing is, though, that my suggested lie doesn’t explain why Rachel Uchitel made a quick trip to L-A and lawyered up with Gloria Allred…..that wasn't just for PUBLICITY, was it????
Everybody from local sports columnist Andy Baggot to my YourNews colleague Bill Wineke to ESPN's Michael Wilbon says Tiger doesn’t owe anybody an explanation about the now-notorious fire-hydrant-and-tree- smashing incident late last week. Private matter, they say. Between Tiger and his car insurance company, I guess. He’ll pay a ticket of $164 for careless driving; case closed.
My wife had a similar reaction to Wineke’s when learning the vehicle involved was a big, black Cadillac Escalade. He was a pitchman for Buick, wasn’t he? I pointed out to my bride that last summer, Buick pulled the plug on the big paychecks to Tiger to cut costs. He played in the world’s last Buick Open golf tournament anyway. No hard feelings. Bailout money doesn’t cover celebrity endorsements.
As of this writing, his biggest single paycheck-issuer, Nike, says they’ll stand by their man. Tiger won’t lose a dime in endorsements because he’s a bad driver, pun intended.
Unless it’s because the accident followed a nasty domestic battery incident, and that’s the kind of stuff the new mainstream media….TMZ and Entertainment Tonight…will dine on. There’s no evidence of that, though it won’t stop the gossip websites and shows from implying it.
Baggot and Wineke and the others are right: Tiger doesn’t owe us any more of an explanation than Barbara Lawton does for her abrupt pulllout from the Governor’s race.
But both of them handled the situation quite poorly.
Just as the Lawton pullout has fueled everything from the malicious gossip of a Green Bay talk-show host to a search of her official e-mails trying to find a clue about why she quit, Tiger’s silence is deafening.
All he’s said, officially, is that the accident was solely his fault. Did anyone believe or allege otherwise? He’s said the horrible rumors aren’t true. Which rumors?
Because he’s the top-ranked golfer in the world, sports writers and commentators give him a break when he slams a club in anger or drops the F-bomb after a bad shot. He’s expected to win every tournament he enters, and pressure like that nobody needs. But, that’s what you get when you’re on the verge of being the only athlete-billionaire around.
So what should Tiger have done? He should have lied his rear end off, the American way.
He should have called some reporter pal (like Brett Favre calling Greta Van Susteren) and said “I had a sleepless night going, was really tired, pulled out of the driveway to take in the night air, and somehow hit the gas instead of the brakes. Next thing you know I’m in the middle of the lawn half stunned, with my wife trying to get me out of the car. I feel like a dope. I guess I’d better leave my driving to the golf course for a while.”
I was lied to for thirty years in the news biz. I’ve heard them all. I know the difference between a convincing lie and a bad lie. If you’re reading this, Tiger, I’m available to consult, on a fee basis.
Thing is, though, that my suggested lie doesn’t explain why Rachel Uchitel made a quick trip to L-A and lawyered up with Gloria Allred…..that wasn't just for PUBLICITY, was it????
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Private Lives; Public People
It was a week ago Wednesday that local TV news anchor Sarah Carlson had a very public incident involving an affliction she’s made no secret of: epilepsy. Toward the end of Channel 15’s morning news broadcast, the personable young anchor had a seizure on-air, and was taken to the hospital.
Sarah’s OK, and when I called WMTV they said she was doing fine and would soon be back on the air.
The station confirmed an outpouring of concern for her from the viewers, and a lot of folks took time to send her electronic get-well wishes. Although we may have never actually met the folks we hear giving news on local radio and TV stations, we often feel we know them. Anybody who’s ever been “in the biz” can tell you about how many times they’ve been approached by folks they don’t know.
I’ve known Sarah since her days as a radio news reporter and anchor for WIBA-AM, and have been a guest in her home. She is just as nice, friendly, and personable in “real life” as she appears to be on TV.
She’s been on the Channel 15 morning show for the past three years, and was diagnosed with epilepsy about a year ago. In her role as health reporter for the station, Carlson has reported and blogged about epilepsy. She’s on the board of directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Southern Wisconsin.
Carlson has done a lot, personally and professionally, to help raise awareness - and money - to help fight the disorder, which affects more than 50 thousand Wisconsinites.
I’ve often said the default position for TV is “excess” - with so many reporters and producers trying to wring every possible amount of emotion from any story. The old adages “if it bleeds, it leads” and “if it cries, it flies” are more true today than ever before.
That’s why I was surprised that our local daily newspaper - The Wisconsin State Journal - apparently asked for a copy of the video of Sarah having the on-air seizure. I didn’t think the paper would play that game, since there’s nothing educational about seeing a TV anchor have a grand mal seizure on the air. It would be pure voyeurism.
According to the article, Channel 15’s News Director, Chris Gegg, “declined to provide footage of the incident, citing privacy concerns“. If I’d have been in Gegg’s shoes, I would have flatly said “none of your business”. But then, the reporter would have whined about how it happened in public, and the people have a right to see it, or some such pabulum.
I hope Sarah is back on TV soon. I “scan the band” of local TV news outlets every morning, and always spend a few minutes watching Sarah, Charlie, and Christine.
If the local paper is looking for disturbing TV footage, perhaps they can link to the video of the expensive homes falling into Lake Delton during the flooding a couple summers ago. It’s a sure bet the TV stations will drag out that footage again this June.
Or they can hound Tiger Woods for the REAL story…..
Sarah’s OK, and when I called WMTV they said she was doing fine and would soon be back on the air.
The station confirmed an outpouring of concern for her from the viewers, and a lot of folks took time to send her electronic get-well wishes. Although we may have never actually met the folks we hear giving news on local radio and TV stations, we often feel we know them. Anybody who’s ever been “in the biz” can tell you about how many times they’ve been approached by folks they don’t know.
I’ve known Sarah since her days as a radio news reporter and anchor for WIBA-AM, and have been a guest in her home. She is just as nice, friendly, and personable in “real life” as she appears to be on TV.
She’s been on the Channel 15 morning show for the past three years, and was diagnosed with epilepsy about a year ago. In her role as health reporter for the station, Carlson has reported and blogged about epilepsy. She’s on the board of directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of Southern Wisconsin.
Carlson has done a lot, personally and professionally, to help raise awareness - and money - to help fight the disorder, which affects more than 50 thousand Wisconsinites.
I’ve often said the default position for TV is “excess” - with so many reporters and producers trying to wring every possible amount of emotion from any story. The old adages “if it bleeds, it leads” and “if it cries, it flies” are more true today than ever before.
That’s why I was surprised that our local daily newspaper - The Wisconsin State Journal - apparently asked for a copy of the video of Sarah having the on-air seizure. I didn’t think the paper would play that game, since there’s nothing educational about seeing a TV anchor have a grand mal seizure on the air. It would be pure voyeurism.
According to the article, Channel 15’s News Director, Chris Gegg, “declined to provide footage of the incident, citing privacy concerns“. If I’d have been in Gegg’s shoes, I would have flatly said “none of your business”. But then, the reporter would have whined about how it happened in public, and the people have a right to see it, or some such pabulum.
I hope Sarah is back on TV soon. I “scan the band” of local TV news outlets every morning, and always spend a few minutes watching Sarah, Charlie, and Christine.
If the local paper is looking for disturbing TV footage, perhaps they can link to the video of the expensive homes falling into Lake Delton during the flooding a couple summers ago. It’s a sure bet the TV stations will drag out that footage again this June.
Or they can hound Tiger Woods for the REAL story…..
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